Site Mobile Navigation

N.F.L. Picks New Chairmen for Panel on Concussions

The N.F.L. further distanced itself from its tumultuous past regarding concussions on Tuesday by selecting two new co-chairmen for a renamed policy committee and accepting the resignation of one of that group’s most prominent members.

The decision was the latest of several moves by the league concerning its head-injury rules since an embarrassing hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in October that capped three years of mounting controversy.

Dr. H. Hunt Batjer, the chairman of neurological surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Ill., and Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, the chief of neurological surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, were chosen by Commissioner Roger Goodell to lead what has been rechristened the N.F.L. head, neck and spine medical committee. It had been called the mild traumatic brain injury committee — named after the common scientific term for concussion — since its founding in 1994.

In addition to the official announcement, the league spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed that Dr. Elliot Pellman, the committee’s sole chairman until he resigned that position in 2007 while remaining a forceful member of the panel, would no longer be a member of the group. Pellman, also the Jets’ team physician, had treated players for concussions and authored policies on the injury in ways that were strongly criticized by outside experts.

Batjer and Ellenbogen will replace Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Viano, who resigned as co-chairmen of the committee under fire last fall. Casson was particularly criticized during two House hearings for his continued denials of any link among retired players between injuries sustained in professional football and heightened rates of dementia, and for his leading a study of league retirees that outside experts described as improperly designed.

Aiello said that Batjer and Ellenbogen could reassemble the committee, which now has 15 members, as they see fit. The N.F.L. often had to answer for statements by the group that appeared to favor league interests while clashing with independent medical experts.

The committee was expanded to include research into the neck and spine because of the relevance of those areas to the brain and to use the expertise of some committee members, Aiello said. Aiello added that the committee will retain Dr. Thom Mayer, the N.F.L. players association’s medical director, so the union would keep its voice in the group.

“We’re making a transition to a new committee with new chairmen,” Aiello said. “If they want to boot someone from the committee or add a doctor or two, that would be their decision.”

Neither Batjer nor Ellenbogen returned messages left for them Tuesday. Aiello asserted the doctors’ independence from the N.F.L. — they have no previous ties to teams and they will receive no compensation beyond expenses — but added that the league was not allowing them to speak to members of the news media beyond the news release.

“I am humbled and honored to be participating in a program by the N.F.L. that recognizes the widespread problem of concussion, which occurs in a wide spectrum of our population, from student-athletes to soldiers to professional athletes,” Ellenbogen said in the statement. “I hope through our actions, research and advocacy, we can improve the prevention and treatment of this public health issue for athletes in all sports and at all levels of play.”

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Pellman declined comment on his resignation when reached at his office. He had been the primary author of many of the league’s 13 papers published in the journal Neurosurgery from 2003 to 2006 that made statements or recommended policies at odds with outside research findings and medical opinion. He also had overseen the care of several Jets players who developed serious postconcussion syndrome, including receivers Al Toon and Wayne Chrebet.

“He agrees with the concept of reformulating the committee and starting afresh,” Aiello said. “He will continue to serve our office as a liaison as he does with our other medical committees.”

A current member of the committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said that the selection of new leadership was “absolutely essential” to moving forward.

“These guys have the gravitas to do just that — let’s start fresh and do what’s right for the game of football and the people who play it,” the committee member said.

Whether that fresh start includes the scrapping of two major initiatives led by Casson and Pellman, respectively — a study of the long-term effects of N.F.L. football on retired players and the development of a new protocol for testing helmets — remains to be seen. Aiello said those decisions would be considered by the new co-chairmen.

The league announced that the two new co-chairmen had already decided to add Dr. Mitchel S. Berger, chairman of neurological surgery at U.C. San Francisco, to serve on the committee.

Berger was an all-Ivy League defensive end at Harvard and tried out for the Chicago Bears in 1974.

“My No. 1 goal is to make the game safer at every level and to ensure that the players will have a healthy future after they finish playing,” Berger said.

Batjer, a past president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Society of University Neurosurgeons, is known mostly for his work in vascular surgery, particularly on complex aneurysms and vascular malformations.

By virtue of his work in a trauma hospital, Ellenbogen has more experience dealing with the types of head injuries football players can sustain while playing. As a former chief of neurosurgery and director of the residency program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he also conducted research on head injuries in the military.

A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2010, on Page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: N.F.L. Overhauls Concussion Committee. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe